Giving more than thanksEbeneezer Scrooge spent a lifetime accumulating possessions, but he never found any real joy in them. It was not until he experienced a change in heart that he discovered the joy of humanity and the joy of sharing. Charles Dickens' tale of "A Christmas Carol" was a product of the grim days of the industrial revolution, but his glimpse of human nature is just as true today. Greed is still just as destructive, both those consumed by it and those...

Dallas shots still echoAs the clock moves past noon and toward 1 p.m. today, we take a moment to reflect on three shots fired four decades ago in Dallas that were heard throughout the world and continue to echo today. Between those hours, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot from a sixth-floor window in the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Less than an hour later, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, our 35th president of the United States was pronounced dead as hundred...

Trust hurt by tiny cutsDishonesty and scams don't really change much over the years. They just get dressed up in new suits and use new variations on the old tricks. Back in the late 1970s, in the relative dark ages of computers, a particularly clever thief came up with an ingenious plan. He worked as a programmer in the banking industry, if memory serves, and he used a mathematical trick to rake in his illegal money. The trick went something like this: The bank norm...

City's future now at stakeAs sure as nights turn chilly and leaves fall from trees, Russellville City Council members will find themselves in a budgetary storm come the last couple months of each year. These annual rites of fiscal passage began a few years ago when city officials faced a few needs and a few wants. At that time, they had a boatload of money in the bank and were looking at pretty rosy economic forecasts. So, the city began building. A softball park. A so...

Exporting our futureIn modern America, true power has come not from the barrel of a gun but from the end of an assembly line. Before that, the power came from a shipyard, an artisan's shop, a textile mill, or a country farm. In short, America's greatness was produced by the hands of workers who took the nation's bounty of natural resources and turned it into something useful, something that other people would buy, whether across town or across the globe. America'...

CBS caved on Reagan miniseriesBy Ron Butts I had no plans whatsoever of watching the CBS mini-series "The Reagans." Now, it appears, that no one except Showtime subscribers will get a chance to see it. CBS has backed down after protests from conservatives and decided not to broadcast the movie depicting the White House days of President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy. Saying the movie did not present a balanced view of Reagan's years in the White House, the television g...

Budget gets shot in armWhen budgetary problems arise, a little windfall certainly comes in handy. Such is the case for the city of Russellville. Faced with the prospect of fairly drastic cuts in city services, especially in public safety, the city hit it lucky when the LOPFI police and fire pension funds reported a $371,000 credit due the city's coffers. That's more money than a 1-mill property tax increase would raise. Coupled with an overall tightening of the budg...

Politics wins over policyA mother of five has a solution for the never-ending fracas in the U.S. Senate. It's as good as any we've seen. Senators who took part in the 40-hour opponent-bashing should be made to apologize for saying those bad things, then give each other a hug and a kiss. The photo opportunity would be priceless: Ted Kennedy giving Bill Frist a big bear hug and a peck on the cheek. Instead of playing nice, members of the world's greatest deliberative bo...

Tardy salute for carriersA lot of times in the newspaper world, we unfortunately will miss a thing or two. It's not intentional, and we don't have a Miss Cleo-type to make sure we catch everything or see what's coming down the road. However, it happens. October is the busiest month of the year for everyone at The Courier, primarily because it's time to finalize and publish our biggest special section of the year, Progress. Instead of looking ahead for a moment, we're ...

Criticisms don't add upAccording to Rep. Michael Lamoureux, state legislators generally have the same two reactions to Arkansas Tech University's president, Dr. Robert C. Brown. First, they see him as a genuinely nice guy. Second, they know he's going to ask for more money for Arkansas Tech. That first trait is a good one to have when the second trait is so prominently displayed. That first trait was unfortunatly taxed recently when Joel Stubblefield, the chancellor...

Tech's facts crystal clearJoel Stubblefield, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, called it a cheap shot, but from our perspective it's just a simple fact. University presidents from around the state were at a legislative hearing last Wednesday to urge lawmakers to improve funding for higher education. Cracks appeared in what should have been a united front when the UAFS official took offense at a comment from Tech's president, Dr. Robert C. Brown. S...

Big tent about to fallNot everyone with a Confederate flag decal on his pickup window is a racist or a bigot. And not every racist or bigot has a Confederate flag decal. Yet try listening to the current, continuing debate among the Democratic candidates for president and you might think the two are inseparable. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean got things stirred up with comments about wanting the be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup truc...

Feasibility questionsThe team of Russellville firefighters that is studying the feasibility of starting a city-run ambulance service must find some answers. Three questions will be key to deciding the issue. First, how much will this cost? Second, how will it be staffed? Third, will the medical needs of the community, both Russellville and the rest of Pope County, be served any better than they are now? Paying for ambulances, equipment and stations will be a probl...

Solve spam: just delete itBy Phil Lamb editor@couriernews.com It's amazing what comes in the e-mail these days. I check the mail that comes to editor@couriernews.com several times a day, plus I occasionally download the catch-all folder for e-mail that goes to inactive or misspelled accounts. In the past two weeks, I have deleted nearly 2,000 messages. To get anything else done besides checking e-mail, one must develop some anti-spam techniques. Here are some tricks th...

Holding line on housingThe issue of affordable housing in Russellville is one that should concern everyone, from contractors to developers to consumers and city officials. The debate over underground power lines is but a symptom of the problem, albeit the one that has become more visible of late. In addressing the Planning Commission, which last week rejected a proposal to prohibit aboveground power lines in new developments, city planner Jim von Tungeln expressed c...

Good luck, GodspeedThe time of separation has arrived for members of the 206th Field Artillery and their families and friends. On Sunday morning, members of the unit will load up and start their 18-month deployment - first to Fort Hood, Texas, for training, followed by a year in Iraq. Elsewhere in today's Courier you will find a full page notice of a flag ceremony downtown, the unit's departure route and the staggered 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. departure times. You...

New number just an illusionIf only the federal deficit fell as fast as the consolidation number in competing state education plans ... Responding to a state Supreme Court mandate to improve public schools, Gov. Mike Huckabee determined that school districts with fewer than 1,500 do not offer the economy of scale needed to provide cost-effective education to their students. The resulting backlash against consolidation in any form has driven that number from 1,500 to 900 ...

Short shorts go too far for eateryBy Sean Ingram judicial@couriernews.com No shirt, no shoes, no pants, no freedom? A Little Rock man faced a fine and possible jail time after wearing a skimpy bathing suit into a fast food restaurant during the Labor Day weekend. Workers at Taco Bell called police during that weekend when Phillip Beard walked into the restaurant wearing only a tiny black Speedo bathing suit and a dark T-shirt that barely reached his waist. Caddo Valley Police ...

About letters to the editorThe editorial page, like the rest of this newspaper, belongs to the readers. We try to educate, entertain, enlighten and encourage our readers. Not that we expect every reader to agree with everything on this page page. We hope you won't, because we want to give a diversity of viewpoints, including those with which we (and you) might disagree. Part of that diversity depends on you, gentle reader. We invite you, again, to express your own views...

Saving time, all the timeIf you forgot to reset your clocks last night, don't worry. You can go back to bed for half an hour and still get up in time to make it to church. Yes, it's that "fall back" time of year, when everyone gets an extra hour to sleep, unlike the evil twin of "spring forward," which robs us all of that much-needed nap time. Who among us doesn't like this extra hour of sleep? People are more rested, smiles are broader, and some of us can make it to ...